Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart love one another constantly, because you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God. ForAll flesh is like grass,and all its …
Continue reading Living Now with Eternity in Mind #3: Living By God’s Word
I've been a pastor for nearly 20 years, which means I've been preaching for nearly 20 years. That's a lot of sermons! And you would think that after all of this preaching I would be an especially confident, homiletical professional, always able to prepare and deliver rhetorically impressive and spiritually moving sermons with ease! Alas, …
Continue reading What is it Like to Preach (or What’s Behind the Homiletical Curtain)?
I don't always "feel" spiritual. Whatever that means. Not only that, sometimes I feel positively unspiritual. Again, whatever that means. But maybe you can relate. You pray, but it feels like you're talking to yourself. You read Scripture, but nothing springs out of the text as a joyful surprise or as a source of conviction. …
Over the last five years or so, I have had at least half a dozen pastor friends who have had to leave or resign from their churches on account of various kinds of congregational dysfunction or confict. Even though it's true that I don't know many of the details about these individual stories, it almost …
Continue reading Sin, Church Conflict, and the Need for Confession in Public Worship
How open are you about expressing your emotions? Do you typically hide your feelings from others? Or do you find it difficult to put how you are feeling into words? Maybe you're not someone who is, as they say, in touch with their feelings. Perhaps you find the outward expression of emotions--be it anger, sadness, …
grace notes 